Valor At Vauzlee (35 page)

Of the initial salvo fired from the stern tubes of the Space Command ships, eighteen were knocked down by the Raider gunners. But sixteen got through to their targets. Three Raider ships were obliterated almost immediately as secondary explosions from ruptured fuel systems or damaged fusion plants completed the job started by Space Command torpedoes, and eight more were so badly damaged that they were permanently out of the fight. Five might still able to fight, but their offensive and defensive capability had been severely compromised.

The urgency of turning so their lasers could be used in defense of the ship, had prevented the Raiders from making use of their own stern tubes, but all fifty-eight of the undamaged ships began to fire their broadside tubes as they came to bear. The Space Command laser weapon teams, busy targeting Raider energy weapons or punching holes in the sides of Raiders ships, had to stop and redirect their fire towards inbound torpedoes as the space between the two forces filled with streaking death in hardened casings. The Space Command ships had begun to build their envelopes again as soon as the spread of torpedoes from their bows had left the ship.

* * *

Admiral Nazeer ground his teeth angrily as the battle damage information poured in. Eleven ships destroyed and five more in seriously bad condition, barely able to continue the fight. At least half of the others had lost energy weapons and were venting atmosphere to some degree from laser damage. The battle planners at Raider Central Command had declared with supreme confidence that the Spaccs would
never
allow the Raider fleet to get between them and the station. In fact, the Galactic Space Command Station Defense Operations Manual clearly states that enemy ships
must
never
be allowed a clear path to the defended station. But the damn Spaccs had just thrown the book away and done the inconceivable. And Nazeer, in his arrogance, had let them.

He had lost almost twenty percent of his fleet, and thirty percent of his fighting effectiveness, when he was suckered by that damn Spacc move. If he knew who the sneaky bastard was who'd devised that one, he'd gladly give another ten percent of his force to nail his ass.

"Okay," he mumbled to the unseen enemy who had just stolen a march on him. "You got one past me. But that's the last one you get."

Even though the Raiders were now between the station and its defenders, Nazeer couldn't use it to his advantage. If his ships turned their backs on the Spaccs, to make a run on the station, the Spaccs would begin pounding their much more vulnerable sterns to space dust. Neither was Nazeer willing to surrender his heavy advantage in numbers by sending even a part of his force to attack the station while the rest engaged the Spacc ships. He needed all his lasers for a defensive umbrella. Nazeer knew that with their superiority in numbers his forces were sitting in a much better position. Eventually, the law of averages would prove out and Raider torpedoes were going to get through, reducing the Spacc forces with each strike. For now the ships of both fleets continued to pound away at the other.

"Admiral," the tactical officer said after the third barrage of torpedoes from the Spacc forces ended, "they're forming their envelopes again."

"And we still haven't taken out any of their ships?"

"No, sir. I'm sure we've hurt them though. Although they've knocked down all of our birds, we've been clobbering them with our laser arrays."

Nazeer nodded. He'd known that the Spaccs wouldn't remain in their position much longer. They'd only reappeared this close so that his forces wouldn't have time to properly prepare their defenses for the torpedo attack. At this distance, his fleet's greater firepower would eventually overwhelm them in a bare-knuckle fight, even if the Spacc ships did have significantly better hulls and armor. But where were they going? He knew they'd never leave the area.

"Com, alert all ships to keep an extra special eye out their stern in case these bastards try another flanking maneuver like the last one.

* * *

The Space Command laser teams continued to fire until the order came to cease. The torpedo gunners had already ceased before the envelope formation began since torpedoes become almost useless after passing through a temporal field boundary. Upon receiving the order to execute India-Two, all seven ships seemed to disappear at once as their Light-Speed drives were engaged.

* * *

"Behind us," the tactical officer on the destroyer Mourning Star screamed into his headset and the eyes of all tac officers shifted to their aft monitors as the GSC destroyer Buenos Aires appeared twenty-thousand kilometers behind the Raider fleet. Nervous helmsmen on every Raider ship engaged side mounted engines and even thrusters in a desperate effort to get their ships turned to face the new direction before Spacc torpedoes could again assail their vulnerable sterns. Torpedo gunners immediately targeted the GSC ship. Four-hundred-sixty-four torpedoes spewed from bow tubes as they came to bear. The Raider gunners were taking a page from the Spacc handbook, and although their telemetry technology wasn't as advanced, they would attempt to lock onto targets and guide the torpedoes
after
they were in flight.

As the blizzard of torpedoes raced towards the Buenos Aires, imminent threat alarms began sounding at every Raider tactical station. Horrified tac officers realized that as they had been watching the Buenos Aires, the other six Spacc ships had returned to previous positions just a thousand kilometers away and fired a full salvo of seventy-five torpedoes from their bow tubes towards the susceptible sterns of the Raider ships.

The SC laser teams continued to provide defensive fire as the six Space Command warships formed their envelopes and again disappeared.

"Son of a…!" Admiral Nazeer screamed at no one in particular as damage reports came flooding in.

Another nineteen ships had been completely destroyed, and nine more seriously damaged while his people had been wasting their torpedoes firing at a wisp. The Spacc ships had been limited to stern torpedo numbers the first time, but for the second maneuver, they had simply dipped under the Raider fleet and taken a quick, fifteen-second circular trip around the station's outer traffic pattern. When they returned, their bows still pointed towards the Raider fleet. The trip, lasting only as long as they estimated it would take for the Raider ships to turn a hundred-eighty degrees after spotting the Buenos Aires, had been so quick that DeTect sensors were still reporting the information as the GSC ships fired their torpedoes. No one had noticed, or at least not realized the significance of the fact that the GSC destroyer Buenos Aires had never dropped her temporal envelope so that she could fire torpedoes. As the massive barrage from the Raider fleet bore down on her, she simply engaged her Light-Speed drive and again disappeared from sight and targeting systems.

* * *

"That's cut them down to size," Admiral Holt said excitedly to his ship commanders as the seven ships reappeared at their original positions fifty thousand kilometers from the station. "
Thirty
of their largest and most powerful ships out of the battle, and fourteen more severely damaged. Very well done! Prepare to execute India-Three as they approach the station."

* * *

"The seven Spacc ships have assumed a defensive posture fifty-thousand kilometers from the base, between our forces and the space station, Admiral," the tactical officer said to Admiral Nazeer. "They're back at the Echo-Three positions where they started."

"That bastard has suckered me twice, dammit. I want his hide on my office wall. I bet he has to be inside the Space Station. Enough of this damn nonsense. Com, notify all ships to execute attack plan Niagara."

* * *

"The Raider fleet is moving towards the station, Captain," the tac officer aboard the Prometheus said. "They're in two parallel formations, approaching the station like stacked waves."

"Waves?" Gavin echoed. Carver hadn't expected the Raiders to throw caution to the wind this early by committing to a direct frontal assault on the station. She had given a sixty-seven percent chance that they would attempt to circle the station, imitating the action of the Space Command forces at Vauzlee. India-Three was her response to that action.

* * *

"Prepare to execute India-Four," Admiral Holt bellowed. "The Raiders have advanced the script a bit."

As the Raider ships accelerated to Sub-Light-100, the bridge crews aboard the Space Command vessels kept one eye on their monitors and the other on the front viewscreen. From their last battle positions, it would take the Raider ships just over a minute to reach the station, but time seemed to slow down, the seconds passing like minutes.

The seven Space Command vessels were still mainly intact. Less powerful than Space Command's Phased Array Lasers, the Raider energy weapons had failed to penetrate the tritanium hulls with most strikes, and where they had penetrated, the punctures were quickly sealed by internal membranes. Only a few holes were bleeding atmosphere.

Positioned directly between the station and the Raider fleet, the Space Command ships waited for the inevitable torpedo barrage.

* * *

"All ships," Admiral Nazeer said to the thirty-six Raider vessels still able to fight, "slow to Sub-Light-5 and prepare to fire all bow torpedoes on my command."

Nazeer watched the forward monitor closely, as his tac officer calculated the optimum firing point. The Spaccs hadn't yet begun to build envelopes, so they wouldn't be disappearing at the last second this time.

"Optimal range in eighteen seconds, Admiral," his tac officer said. "The countdown is on your left monitor.

Nazeer's eyes darted to the monitor, counting down with the timer. As it reached one second he said, "Fire torpedoes."

Two-hundred-ninety-eight torpedoes spewed forth from the Raider fleet.

* * *

With an average of forty-two nuclear tipped torpedoes bearing down on each ship, it would be a miracle if none got through. Following the India-One maneuver, the defenders had managed to deflect or destroy every torpedo sent their way, but those were staggered firings, coming from the Raider ships on a ‘fire at will' basis as gunners got a lock on a target. This barrage had been fired as one massive salvo, relying on the ability of the guidance people to find a target after launch, and ‘fly' the ordnance to that point. Two-hundred-ninety-eight torpedoes was a serious threat, but it was less than half the six-hundred-eighteen the Raiders had let fly when they first arrived.

Captain Payton sat grimfaced on the bridge of the Thor. He wasn't anxious to die, but he knew that the ships and crews were expendable. Everything must be sacrificed to save the station.

"Okay, people," Captain Payton said, "here they come. All gunners fire at will as soon as you have a lock. If this is to be our final hour, let's ensure that it's our finest hour."

Pulses of coherent light began to fill space between the seven warships and the approaching torpedoes. Intermixed with the laser pulses was a full spread of eighty-four torpedoes from the bow tubes of the Space Command vessels. They didn't expect to fool the Raiders, but the energy pulses might confuse the Raider defensive systems slightly.

* * *

Admiral Holt watched anxiously from the base's CIC as the horde of nuclear tipped torpedoes approached his small, protection fleet. The fifty-thousand kilometer distance took his station's Phased Array Lasers out of the defensive picture for the present, but his weapons experts were standing by, waiting for the inevitable approach by the Raider armada.

As his ships knocked down approaching torpedoes, red lights on the threat board began to wink out, but far too many still remained. As the distance closed, the red lights disappeared at an ever faster rate, but there were still so
many
.

* * *

Captain Wong, aboard the Buenos Aires, watched tensely, her hands gripping the arms of her command chair so tightly that she would have left fingerprints in a more pliable material. Most of the incoming torpedoes had so far been destroyed, or had their detonation circuitry ruined by laser strikes, but it only takes one.

The threat alarms at the tac station had been bleating out danger warnings for over thirty seconds. If a torpedo was going to get through, it would happen in the next ten seconds.

Wong had just begun to think they might once more escape mostly unscathed when she was suddenly pitched sideways violently. Her seatbelt kept her from being thrown from her chair, but the powerful movement twisted her body in such a way as to cause a severe muscle spasm in her back.

"Tac, where have we been hit?" Captain Wong asked quickly as she winced in pain.

The lead tac officer, flung just as violently as everyone else, was gripping his console and trying to decipher the readouts. "We were struck amidship on the starboard side, Captain. I can't be any more precise that that. I only know that the exterior hull sensor grid is damaged there."

"Com, see if engineering has any more information. Helm, can we move?"

"It appears so, Captain, but I'm getting strange readouts from the starboard sub-light engine. Our movements may be sluggish if we have to rely solely on the larboard engine and thrusters for maneuverability."

"Do the best you can. We'll be moving very shortly now."